Healthy Pound Cake Recipes Vs. Sara Lee Pound Cake

Healthy pound cake recipes…vs. Sara Lee pound cake…it’s an interesting way to look at the reasons that you should definitely check into healthier recipes instead of buying from the store—and it all stems from what’s inside Sara Lee’s cake.

Why look?

One thing that a lot of people don’t think about when it comes to healthy pound cake recipes is the fact that they finally get a say over what’s going in their food. You don’t have to buy special foods to get something that’s healthy for you—it’s normally just a cook book away. If that’s not enough to convince you, here are a few reasons why you should definitely check into other ways to sweeten and flavor your cake—besides the ingredients that aren’t so healthy:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

You know you saw this one coming. This type of sugar is very similar to regular old table sugar—which wouldn’t be bad, except for how much stronger it is than most other different sweeteners. It’s a lot stronger, for one, but most foods still use large amounts of it. It’s not the fact that it has high fructose corn syrup—but the amount of high fructose corn syrup in it. It doesn’t matter what type of sugar you use—it’ll affect you…but it’s a lost easier to measure that when you’re making your own healthy pound cake recipes, instead of buying them where you can’t really get a decent grasp of how much sugar you should have. To put it into perspective—an adult should have between 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per day, maximum. Much less is much better. Keep in mind that since foods have started to be sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, weight has also skyrocketed. Keep that in mind.

White Flour

If you look at anything with white flour in it, you’ll notice that there are about a hundred other ingredients along with it—whereas, with wheat flour, you have a lot less junk in there. It’s actually kind of interesting, considering you would think all it would take would be tiny bit of flour and maybe sugar…but apparently it takes quite a bit more, when you can buy artisan bread/cake that has maybe six ingredients in it. Luckily, whole wheat flour can be found and while white flour isn’t all that dangerous—it is a little lacking in a few of the necessary nutrients that whole wheat has. And, it won’t hurt healthy pound cake recipes.

Mono-glycerides and Di-glycerides

Fun fact—trans fat is only required to be listed if it comes from tri-glycerides and if it is over half a gram. Sounds pretty harmless—except guess what else happens to contain the artery-clogging trans-fats? That’s right—good ole mono and di-glycerides. They’re hidden, but, luckily, you can avoid them in most healthy pound cake recipes…but you have to do quite a bit of research. In fact, there is actually a healthier alternative to mono-or di-glycerides. These ingredients aren’t even needed!

Guar Gum

Guar gum is also found in many, many pound cakes from the store—but you can avoid it. It’s kind of a “peace offering” since it has been suggested that it helps with cholesterol…however, there is also a little bit of evidence that it might cause hardening of the arteries. However, it does treat a lot of things…but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you when you stick it with other things. It won’t hurt you, necessarily, but it’s not really needed. It won’t affect most healthy pound cake recipes, since it rarely appears in home recipes. It’s also a thickening agent.

Xanthan Gum

Then you have something else that rarely appears in healthy pound cake recipes—xanthan gum. This is a type of carbohydrate, made out of bacteria that is added to sugar…which then turns it into gum, and that’s where the xanthan gum comes in. It’s a thickening agent as well as guar gum…meaning that Sara Lee has two thickening agents for the same dessert. This again, won’t hurt you in small dosages…however, it can cause you to feel sick and have diarrhea as well. This, again, isn’t really necessary. This isn’t saying it’s as bad as some of the other ingredients, but there’s really no point for it. Another fun fact—this is also causes black rot in certain veggies. Needless to say, just find something without this—it’s not necessary,

Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate

Healthy pound cake recipesdon’t contain this either. This is a caustic form of lactic acid and has to be extremely diluted to use in most foods. This is used to make it fluffy—kind of how yeast would, but to also make it even. That’s why most breads—and cakes, such as this one—have uniform bubbles. Unlike homemade goods, there aren’t any random bubbles that are significantly larger or smaller. However, it’s still a good idea to avoid this, since it’s caustic…and, to be frank, unneeded.

Vanillin

This is pretty much just fake vanilla. There’s nothing really dangerous about it and it can be quickly created in a factory—but you can’t be sure of what else is being made in that particular factory, either. So, it’s not going to hurt you—and it’s been used for a good, long while, but it’s still fake—and not needed for healthy pound cake recipes!

Annato

This also isn’t found in healthy pound cake recipes. It’s not necessary—in fact, it’s just coloring. It’s also the food coloring that a significantly large amount of people have skin reactions to. But…it’s just food coloring. There’s not any real reason to have it—and, plus, it’s put in almost everything. Not worth it.

Why look at this?

It may not seem like a big deal—but other cakes don’t have this. Not any of these ingredients are necessary—there are either alternatives or no real reason to have them! Finally, have fun creating your own healthy pound cake recipes—with stuff that is worth it!